[Spinal anesthesia and multiple sclerosis]

Spinal anaesthesia was performed in 9 patients with multiple sclerosis for 14 surgical procedures: urological surgery 13 times and plastic surgery once. No complication was observed. except for a transient exacerbation in one case. Spinal anaesthesia appeared to be an innocuous procedure in multiple sclerosis as no neurotoxicity was observed. Exacerbation of multiple sclerosis was similar to that seen with general anaesthesia. Moreover, spinal anaesthesia improved the operating conditions by relieving bladder spasticity; it was also often asked for by patients who feared the loss of consciousness of general anaesthesia.